Australia’s Optus hit by nationwide community outage

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian No. 2 telco Optus on Wednesday reported an outage throughout its cell phone and web networks affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers however the firm didn’t specify if it was resulting from a cyber incident.

A cyber breach final 12 months hit Optus, the Australian unit of telecoms agency Singapore Telecommunications, exposing private particulars of consumers, together with their residence addresses, driver licence and passport numbers.

Optus has simply over 10 million clients, about 40% of Australia’s inhabitants.

“We’re conscious of a problem impacting Optus cell and (broadband) providers and are working to revive providers as shortly as potential,” the corporate stated on messaging platform X.

Social media posts, which couldn’t be verified by Reuters, stated worldwide roaming was additionally impacted.

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland stated she had “restricted” details about the outage, which has impacted networks for a number of hours.

“That might point out doubtlessly a deep community drawback and one that’s vital,” Rowland advised ABC Radio, including that she could be “reluctant to invest” a couple of potential cyber assault.

The federal government had sought additional data from Optus together with once they anticipated to revive providers.

Melbourne’s prepare networks have been compelled to close down for about half-hour because of the outage, leading to delays in the course of the morning rush, media reported.

“Main delays to all traces proceed with choose alterations and cancellations,” town’s metro rail service stated on X. Some hospitals stated their telephone traces had been impacted.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Modifying by Chris Reese and Stephen Coates)